2023 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION: Will Bola Tinubu The Jagaban Fight Or Flee?—Until the night of the Black Tuesday, no one could have imagined knew there exists a cold-blooded monster much more ruthless than the crocodile that could order the Killings of those it has sworn to protect.
Nigerians had trusted the military that pledged to protect lives, limbs and fatherland on Saturday, October 17th embracing the crocodile and its smile when it launched Operation Crocodile Smile only to pay be back stabbed.
Despite the admission of Sanwo-Olu that Nigerian soldiers were responsible for the gruesome murder of the defenceless youths, the Presidency, military authorities and a cross-section of the Nigerian leadership have neither condemned the killings nor apologised, let alone seek justice for the innocent souls wasted in pitch darkness.
Members of the All Progressives Congress (APC), have kept silent after Nigerian soldiers openly killed about 20 children of nobodies during the peaceful protest in Lekki.
The Asiwaju of Lagos, Bola Tinubu said he had been reported to the Presidency as being the sponsor of the Lagos protests which he denied. “Why will they use live bullets? I will never, never be part of any carnage. I will never be part of that”, he said.
In a fresh interview on Saturday, Tinubu said he has asked Sanwo-Olu who ordered the Lekki shooting but didn’t tell us the governor’s response.
For a politician of Tinubu’s stature to ask a state governor who ordered federal soldiers to go and kill, I grabbed a dictionary, checked the meaning of political subterfuge and watched Tinubu’s horse of political correctness limp down the road to 2023 presidency.
Surely, Tinubu knows Buhari is the one to ask that crucial question and he (Tinubu) knows the answer, but the truth is gagged in the womb of an ambition.
Tragically, Tinubu is the archetypal ostrich that buries its head in the sand of ambition, calling on government to investigate wounded protesters while the killer soldiers that shot the protesters pluck the feathers on its rump unquestioned.
For Tinubu, there are four statements on the wall: One, Buhari is a bad political investment. Two, his major enemies among those he raised in the South-West will stop at nothing to undo him. Three, Buhari and the North won’t back his candidacy. Four, he needs to stand up against Buhari and fight for his political life. Maybe, just maybe it’s not too late.
Owing to intra-party buffeting, Tinubu’s political goodwill is ebbing considerably, hence he might be stuck with mending fences with his sworn political godsons and recharging his political machinery in the South-West, nay Nigeria.
The Jagaban Borgu might have been weakened by age and ‘igbadun’ (the good life) such that the prospects of a showdown with Buhari, his political beneficiary, seem unpromising.
For two days, he ate and went to bed when the innocent were being mowed down in their prime, in Lagos. The Governor of Lagos couldn’t reach him for two days while the fifth largest economy in Africa burned.
He read a 10-minute speech and never said a word of condolence for families who lost their children to soldiers’ bullets. His government locked up COVID-19 palliatives across the country while the masses wallowed in hunger. Tinubu should remember these credentials when considering his fightback options.
